It’s a curiosity that Liverpool has generally done very well when losing Mohamed Salah to the African Cup of Nations over the years. It’s a case study in correlation not implying causation, but Jürgen Klopp has had a knack for finding ways to win without his talisman — a trend emphatically continued by a 4-0 win over Bournemouth.
Thankfully, AFCON is more or less the only time Liverpool has to address the question of how to cope without Salah, with the Egyptian seemingly bulletproof on the injury front. He has in fact picked up a rare problem while away at the tournament, but the current prognosis is that he will return to Anfield without having missed any more games than expected.
But this period of absence feels more significant than those that have gone before, because the issue of Salah’s long-term Liverpool future is looming larger than ever. Still the team’s key player, he is nonetheless the anomaly in a front line that has otherwise been rejuvenated and refreshed, and both his contract situation and the interest from Saudi Arabia will be there on Klopp’s radar.
The manager isn’t exactly holding auditions while Salah is away at AFCON, but every solution for coping without him feels like something of a dry run for the day when he is gone from the club for good. Hopefully, that’s not for a good few years yet, but there is added scrutiny on every fix Klopp tries.
Luis Díaz was tasked with that right-sided berth from the start against Bournemouth. That’s an intriguing experiment that many have been eager to see, but the Colombian struggled to exert a great deal of influence in the Salah role, shorn of the ability to cut in with any real threat. Having tentatively rediscovered some form lately, he felt a little wasted here.
He was among those hooked by Klopp as Liverpool looked to build on a 1-0 lead, and that prompted a reshuffle. Cody Gakpo moved over to the left, Darwin Núñez went through the middle and Diogo Jota moved to the right.
Two goals for Jota later, with the game emphatically put to bed, and Klopp might have been wondering why he hadn’t tried the Portugal star on the right already this season. He certainly carried more threat than either Díaz or Harvey Elliott, effortlessly carrying his goal-scoring form into the Salah position.
And if there’s one thing any Salah replacement will need to deliver, it is goals. It’s the currency he has delivered so reliably ever since arriving at Anfield — and Jota shares something akin to that knack for finding a way to score regardless of how he performs.
As it happens, his all-round game was very good against Bournemouth, especially once he moved to the right. Klopp will surely be weighing up starting him there for the remainder of Salah’s absence, beginning against Fulham in midweek.
What really seemed to unleash the attack was its flexibility. It’s notable that Jota, Núñez and Gakpo have all played through the middle: they duly formed a very narrow front three, and that opened up pockets Liverpool was able to exploit.
It seemed to benefit Núñez just as much, and that’s a formula Klopp will be desperate to find, with Liverpool so keen to unlock the huge promise in its potential record signing. Salah will be a huge boost to the title push when he returns, but the blueprint without him might have just taken clearer shape.
